Record in K-P: Govt issues white paper on PTI performance

Says the party has failed to deliver on promises made during election campaigns.

ISLAMABAD:

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Thursday issued a white paper on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) performance in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) during the party’s 14-month long rule, claiming that the ongoing Islamabad sit-in was aimed at deflecting attention away from its failures in the province.

Addressing the media in Islamabad, PML-N lawmaker Marvi Memon, presented the 130-page document titled ‘A Great Betrayal in the Name of Change’, which compares the performance of the PML-N government in Punjab and PTI government in K-P. She was flanked by Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid and Privatisation Minister Muhammad Zubair.

“The party has failed to deliver in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and in order to divert attention from its performance it has tried to disturb the system through sit-ins,” said Memon.

“The K-P government has spent Rs25 billion out of the total outlay of Rs83 billion during the current fiscal year,” she added.

Taking a swipe at the PTI leadership, Memon said that the party had failed to deliver on the promises it made during its election campaign. She accused PTI of luring youth and the educated middle class into voting for it but ended up polluting their minds with hatred.

The PML-N leader said that Imran’s party was hurling unsubstantiated allegations against the government.

She said the idea behind the white paper is not to heap scorn upon PTI but to highlight its failures in K-P. Censuring K-P Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak for ignoring his province for the past 40 days, Rashid said the PTI government should have made K-P a model province.



Terming Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Dr Tahirul Qadri, a man with a “violent mind”, Rashid said the joint investigation team has declared that violence was initiated by PAT workers during the clashes in Model Town between police and PAT supporters.

Responding to a question, he said that the government would not use force against the protesters in Islamabad.

White paper highlights

In the 130-page document, the government claims that PTI has failed to introduce any economic measures in K-P. The reforms promised during the election campaign are still far from reality and have not been translated into action, the paper reads.

The document pointed out that tax revenue in K-P was the second lowest among all provinces. On development budget, it says that the main fund to develop local areas, communities and facilities is massively underspent.

Comparing the literacy rate between provinces, the document says that the literacy rate in K-P has dropped by 2% from 64.6% to 62.6%.

While praising the PML-N government in Punjab for utilising its own resources for development of schools, the paper criticises PTI for relying exclusively on donors for funding its school reconstruction and rehabilitation, provision of furniture, and girls’ stipends programmes.

On health sector, the paper claims that World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared Peshawar as world’s largest polio reservoir. The anti-polio immunisation campaign was on hold due to PTI’s sit-in, the document further says.

In her paper, Memon also claims that 104 polio cases were detected in FATA, 25 in K-P, 11 in Sindh, one in Punjab and two in Balochistan.

Under the head of neglected segments, the paper held the PTI responsible for attacks on minorities’ communities’ including Sikhs, Christians and Hindus. It also criticises the PTI leadership for ignoring the plight of flood victims across Pakistan.


Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th, 2014.